VATICAN CITY
Newstalk (Ireland)
Richard Chambers
The Vatican has moved to clarify remarks from the Pope about smacking, saying the Pontiff was not encouraging parents to hit their children.
Last week, Pope Francis praised a father he met who said he hit his children if they behaved badly – but never in the face so as not to humiliate them.
A spokesperson for the Holy See says the Pope was speaking about “correcting without humiliating” with love and respect for dignity.
Fr Federico Lombardi said: “I wish to only point out that the Pope was speaking about the responsibility of parents to “correct without humiliating”, or rather, to assume the responsibility of keeping their children on the right track and to help them grow up well”.
“Finding the right way to “correct without humiliating” is part of the responsibility of good parents in a variety of situations”.
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